I’ve mentioned my fondness for Bugsy Malone twice in previous record reviews, but nowhere was the reference more relevant than it is here. In both that musical movie masterpiece and the above named album we have kids donning the metaphorical (sometimes physical) fedora and emulating Jazz Age adults—and in both cases the imitation is both fairly convincing and thoroughly enjoyable.
Rumbo a New Orleans is a production by Sedajazz: a musical collective, management company and record label based in Valencia, Spain. Its website says that, since 1991, it has offered listeners “new projects and alternative ideas that give jazz different satisfactory opportunities that are being showed to the public”—one of which is the Sedajazz Kids Band. This assortment of teens and tweens is one of the organization’s training units, allowing youngsters an opportunity to get out of their practice room, into the recording studio and even on stage at some of Spain’s jazz festivals.
In doing so, the energetic outfit aims to bring on the country’s best developing jazz talent, under the watchful eye of top Spanish saxophonist and musical director Francisco Angel “Latino” Blanco. Their latest recording features thirteen well-loved jazz standards, running the gamut from blues to bebop. These include “Moten Swing,” “Mood Indigo” and “Muskrat Ramble”—alongside ten other standards
